It's not on Mark Watches, but if you go to Mark Reads, you'll see that the tagline of the site is "You are not prepared". And personally, I really love the sentiment, because it meshes so perfectly with the way he forces himself to write his reviews -- chapter by chapter, or episode by episode. Most people writing reviews, or even summaries, have quite a bit of hindsight and are able pick and choose what they talk about -- even unconsciously forgetting things that they LOVED while reading/watching the first time, because those things end up being useless in the plot as a whole. By forcing himself to review after each chapter/episode, he essentially has no hindsight and is literally going off of only what he has been shown up to that point. So when a plot twist happens he isn't just reporting a piece of the plot, he's reacting to the fact that it's actually a twist, not something he's internalized as a piece of the plot. He's completely unprepared for the story.

Also, I kind of love the phrase because it is always my reaction at least once in every review. When he picks up on foreshadowing but then denies that it will happen because it's a children's show/a YA series; when he mentions just how dark the series is when it's at a relatively light point in the arc; when he offhandedly talks about something that's crucial later that he doesn't know about; I always want to pick him up and either hug him or shake him and tell him "Don't get too attached, she's going to die," "You love parallel universes? Then Amber Spyglass is going to be awesome," etc. etc. etc. Or, basically "YOU ARE NOT PREPARED -- this series is going to hit you in the face like a ton of bricks and you will enjoy every second of it."

I wanted to see the universe, so I stole a Time Lord and ran away. And you were the only one mad enough.Biting's excellent! It's like kissing, only there's a winner.-Sexy

That's actually insanely hilarious. Imma have to read the comments, because you know there will be people that won't be able to keep themselves from commenting, and I want to see their contortions to make it not spoiler-y.

I wanted to see the universe, so I stole a Time Lord and ran away. And you were the only one mad enough.Biting's excellent! It's like kissing, only there's a winner.-Sexy

Thanks for the heads up on Mark Watches Avatar. He's picked up on some details I either missed, or forgot about, like the parrallel between Sokka and Zuko seeking their fathers' approval.

The A.V. Club (an affilliate of the Onion that reviews pop culture) just started reviewing Avatar here. Their reviewer has seen the series before, as well as the movie, so there's some comparisons explaining how the movie got it wrong. There are also apologies for bringing the movie up and reminding us that it esists.

I really like Mark Watches Avatar, and I keep watching as he watches (one episode ahead of the reviews, basically). It's a lot of fun, considering it's the 3rd time I've watched the series. I'm surprised he disliked The Earth King so much.

Mark Watches Avatar just ended, pretty much, it will take a few days for him to post his review(s) for the finale. Another chance to bump this thread to remind anyone who hasn't seen this magnificent series that it exists.

Zohar wrote:Mark Watches Avatar just ended, pretty much, it will take a few days for him to post his review(s) for the finale. Another chance to bump this thread to remind anyone who hasn't seen this magnificent series that it exists.

He is so unprepared!

<quintopia> You're not crazy. you're the goddamn headprogrammingspock!<Weeks> You're the goddamn headprogrammingspock!<Cheese> I love you

I'm going to give myself an ulcer waiting for it to be on t.v. "Mid 2012".

Does anyone know if Mark(watches) is still planning to review the movie? I thought he was planning it for shortly after he finished with the series, but I could only agree with him if he decided not to watch it at all.

I'm pretty impressed with it. The whole Hong Kong/ Shanghai in the 20's/30's look is really cool in my opinion. It's a time period you don't often see in media unless you're (obviously) watching some show produced in Hong Kong/ China (Kung Fu Hustle comes to mind). Besides that time period being visually neat, I am impressed that they are not going old-hat with what they had in the first series but attempting to create a continuation of canon history. What I mean by this is that it would have been way too easy to just make Avatar with different characters but in more or less the same setting. It's certainly easier and panders to fans who want to see callbacks to what they enjoyed. I don't think that's going to happen here which means we get brand spanking new material. Not to mention brand spanking new material but material that's fresh and not just an attempt to be new.

So I'm excited.

"I may or may not be a raptor. There is no way of knowing until entering a box that I happen to be in and then letting me sunder the delicious human flesh from your body in reptile fury."

Also, they seem to be having more money this time around. The animation quality is on a completely different level - like the scenes with the "camera" fluidly panning in circles around fighting characters. Never saw anything like it in the original series.

I know what you mean. We don't know how old Korra is, though. She's probably 16-ish? I think I remember they said avatars only get told they're avatars when they're 16, so that's a bit strange. But maybe if she was told earlier for some reason, like Aang, she could have had a lot more time to practice. Fire and air are pretty useful elements to bend in that you don't need to need to have that many materials handy. When she's away from water or earth (especially since things look paved in this time), and considering she doesn't know airbending yet, fire is a natural solution.

Also, and this may be way off the mark, it seems like there's more or less an era of peace that they're living with; it's possible that she's had more exposure to other cultures than previous Avatars did? Although that admittedly seems unlikely, considering two of the Avatars Aang consults with on the Lion Turtle speak of peaceful times.

... with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.

Maybe the way the Water, Earth and Fire nation leaders are all on good terms (assuming Bumi, the Earth King and Toph's Parents (they're in charge of a major shipping company and are nobility or something, right?) are the/almost the majority power in the EN) means that there's a lot more multiculturalism going on, especially since they now have have a Pacifist Avatar who's got friends in the highest places possible?

If we can discuss flaws, I would like to point out (to people who've watched it all) that some of the art degenerates rather spectacularly from season 1 to 3. Katara really gets the short end of the stick. Compare her face in "The Boy in the Iceberg" and "Nightmares and Daydreams".

Supposed to be out this summer. 70 years later, Aang is dead, and a young waterbender named Korra is the new avatar. She has mastered three of the elements and is now striving to master Air. It's set in more of a cosmopolitan/steampunk sort of setting to reflect the 7 decades that have passed, and apparently has a running theme of anti-bending sentiment.

There's lots more information available, and I'm not going to read any of it, because I don't want to ruin it. I adored the first series, and I love that this builds on the same mythos but doesn't look like a simple rehashing of that which has come before. I have very high hopes.

It's going to be about the end of the avatar age, and Korra is going to decide to be the last. OR, the opposite will happen, and Amon and Korra will unite and make it so everyone is a spirit/elemental bender. Also, LE TWIST, Aang, the worlds last and only spirit bender trained Amon.

Also, I loved seeing why they knew Korra was the avatar. Yup. Headstrong.

... with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.

But thanks at the thread for introducting me to the Mark Watches review of avatar. It's adorable how exited he seems to be about many things. Nice read. And I just reached the tales-of-ba-sing-se post , it's surprising how sad it makes me to just read about that scene with Iroh.

Also, there were a bunch of other people hanging out in the dining room with Tenzin and Korra. Other air benders? My impression is that while there's kind of a genetic component to all this, that Republic city has a lot of intermingling... I feel that Tenzin and his kids probably aren't the only airbenders around, right?

... with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.

I think Tenzin is the only airbending master. The other people either have a very minor talent or no bending ability at all but are culturally air nomads- like his wife who specifically says she can't bend at all. The whole benders vs non-benders thing is kind of weird- the original show always left me with the impression that everyone can bend but most people are just pretty bad at it.

What I am really curious about is the metal benders. There are clearly quite a few of them which seems to contradict the idea that it is essentially very powerful earth-bending. Will we also see groups of blood- and lightning-benders?

maybeagnostic wrote:What I am really curious about is the metal benders. There are clearly quite a few of them which seems to contradict the idea that it is essentially very powerful earth-bending.

My speculation is that it took someone as powerful as Toph to recognise that it was possible, and figure out how to do it... but that once that was figured out, she was able to train others in the technique, and refine the process (note that metalbending in TLAB was very crude and imprecise, while now it seems to be just as accurate and reliable as any other form of bending...).